About Islam

Islam.

Islam is a religion founded by Muhammad, a prophet of Allah. Most religious historians believe that Islam was founded in 622 CE, because the Muslim calendar begins here.
In 570 Muhammad was born in the city Mecca. This is now one of the holy cities of Islam.

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http://www.sacredland.org/mecca/

On the picture above you see thousands of Muslims gathered in Mecca on the annual pilgrimage. Every Muslim has to go to the sacred city at least once in their life, according to the five pillars. It is also believed that Adam was buried in Mecca.

Mecca is placed in Saudi Arabia, approximately 80 km from the Red Sea. The entire area of Mecca is desert, but because of the large tourism and the commercial development this fragile environment is getting damaged.

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http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1647R-75114

Islam has 1.57 billion followers all over the world; this represents 23 % of the world population in 2009. It is one of the tree biggest religions in the world (the others being Judaism and Hinduism)

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http://www.cenktolunay.com/articles/in_the_name_of_islam.htm

Islam is spread out all over the world, but is biggest in the Middle East. Bangladesh and Pakistan is the places in the world where most Muslims live, 200 million Muslims live here. 180 million Muslims live in Indonesia; 100 million live in India, 50 million live in Egypt, in the rest of North Africa 50 million Muslims live, in the states of the previous Soviet Union approximately 60 million Muslims live, 25 million Muslims live in Sudan, In the states South from Sahara another 50 million Muslims  have their habitat, and there are also smaller groups in Europe and USA.